Page 2 Advertisements Column 3

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 181, 3 January 1877, Page 2

The Wellington Argus says;—“ The loss of the Otago will inflict severe loss upon many of the passengers, though none will suffer so severely as Mr Brooke, a gentleman who took passage from this port to Hobart Town Amongst Mr Bio *kc’s personal effects were two boxes containing plate aid jewels to the value of £3OOU, and according to a letter received yesterday from Mrs Brooke, neither of the boxes were saved. Unfortunately, the plate was not insured ; the loss, therefore, is total and complete. The misfortune is the more to be regretted as Mr and Mrs Brooke were on their wedding tour, having been recently married in Wellington.” The filling up of the Suez Canal (says the English Mechanic) is an event that may now be considered indefinitely postponed. Last year between the two seas only 52,700 cubic metres of “stuff” weie removed, and the canal was navigated with facility by steamers drawing as much as 27ft., and over 400 ft. in length. The bed of salt which forma the bottom of the Bitter Lakes is gradually dissolving, so that-this portion of the canal is being steadily improved, and, with the increase of vegetation along the banks of the canal, there is a prospect of the production, in a not'distant future, of a fertile and populous tract of country cut of a sandy waste. A fish with two legs has been caught near Otago Heads. It is what is known as the “ elephant fish,” is eighteen inches long, and it has attracted considerable attention. It is to be presented to the Otago Museum.